A photo journal about what it was like to be full time RVers for three years and now Florida residents--for friends, family, and curiosity seekers. We still travel by car, but are house owners now.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Hiking the Beech Cliff Loop Trail

Bar Harbor, ME High: 79 Low: 66

Want an EASY hike? Want a short hike? The Beech Cliff Loop Trail is for you! An .8 of a mile "lollipop" trail, a loop returning back to a straight line....forest floor, graded gravel and rock ledges..Piece of cake! We waited till late in the day today to make up our minds about doing anything, so we needed a short trail to complete in less than an hour. This one fit the bill to a "T".

The wonderful thing about Acadia's hikes, is, you can find anything from the most challenging to the easy....from lengthy, many mile hikes to itty bitty short ones, and every one of them has a scenic view or a payoff for trudging up and down boulder paths, scrambling over rocks, or hey...how about the carriage roads? There you just have to walk up and down steep grades now and then, or bike them if you are in fantastic shape and know how to use your gears....We seem to be lacking in knowledge how to use all our gears, wish there was a class to help with that!

Trailhead location: Head south from Somesville, on ME 102, turn right or west at the flashing yellow light towards Pretty Marsh. Take the second left onto Beech Hill Road at the sign pointing to Beech Mountain and Beech Cliff. Follow Beech Hill Road south for 3.2 miles to the parking lot at its end. The trail for this hike leaves from across the left (east) side of the parking lot.

A couple other more challenging trails intersect off this trail...the Canada Cliff Trail is one.

Within just a matter of a few tenths of climbing up a boulder series of steps, you have the amazing views below.....You are looking down at Echo Lake, and yes, it really was this blue today as we gazed down upon the tiny swimmers below....

A little bit of rock in places, but nothing we couldn't handle

Acadia and St. Sauveur Mountains are off to the east. To the south is Somes Sound, the Gulf of Maine, and the Cranberry Isles. The trail continues along the cliff, then circles inland, closing the loop at .6 of a mile. Another two tenths and we were back at the parking lot. An easy hike with fantastic views today...we highly recommend this one! Eldy has a more challenging one in mind coming up in the next few days. A ladder trail, maybe? (HA! says he......) Short and sweet is never a bad thing, he adds. We'll see where Eldo goes next!

About Us

After traveling full time in a motorhome for three years, we decided to come off the road and settle on Florida's west coast. We still travel and occasionally rent an RV because we miss it so much. Sparky creates and crafts and has a shop on Etsy. Be sure to check out http://etsy.com/shop/JeanBeanGifts to see what she's been making. Thanks for reading us!